In addition to improving your heart health and speeding up fat loss, high-intensity interval training can help increase your VO2 max (the amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise).
That’s because you do repeated, extremely hard bouts of work interspersed with periods of recovery. HIIT also can improve strength and muscle endurance.
Benefits
HIIT is one of the most time-efficient and effective ways to exercise. It combines short periods of intense exercise with brief recovery intervals and can be performed at home or at gyms sunshine coast. It’s also the most convenient exercise to do on a busy schedule.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) aims to maximize the body’s ability to burn calories and improve heart health. While this form of workout is highly effective for competitive athletes, it’s also beneficial for the average person.
A HIIT workout generally consists of repeated, extremely hard bouts of work interspersed with recovery periods, says Noam Tamir, CSCS, founder of TS Fitness in New York City. During the work intervals, you’ll challenge yourself to nearly reach your maximum heart rate before you begin to recover. Then you’ll repeat this process eight times before taking a break.
Another key benefit of HIIT is that it improves insulin sensitivity, which can help prevent or control diabetes. People who have insulin resistance are more likely to develop the disease, which can lead to serious health complications.
Techniques
This type of workout combines brief all-out work periods, separated by short rest periods that make you wish to keep going. The work-to-rest ratio can vary from 1:1 (for example, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off) to 1:4 or more.
HIIT workouts can be performed with or without equipment, but they are most commonly done using bodyweight exercises. You can also use a variety of strength-training exercises, including compound movements like pushups and pullups, as well as plyometrics and agility drills.
One of the most popular forms of HIIT is sprint interval training, which involves completing short maximal bursts of speed or intensity. This type of training can be challenging but also produce impressive performance benefits and health adaptations, Franci Cohen, MS, exercise physiologist and personal trainer, says SELF.
Sprint interval training is a great way to get your heart rate up quickly and increase your oxygen consumption, which will help burn fat. In addition, it can improve your aerobic capacity and muscle endurance.
Another form of HIIT is sprint interval training with recovery (SIT), which incorporates higher-intensity exercise with long recovery periods. It is a more efficient and effective way to maximize your results while avoiding overtraining.
In addition to increasing your cardio and aerobic capacity, SIT can help you develop a more muscular upper body and increase your lean mass. It can also improve your balance, agility, and posture and even reduce the risk of injury in athletes.
The most important thing to remember about HIIT is that you should only complete it once or twice weekly. Otherwise, you’ll risk overtraining, leading to fatigue and muscle soreness. To avoid this, limit your HIIT to one or two weekly workouts, and take at least one day off each week.
Intervals
The key to HIIT involves repeated, extremely hard bouts of work interspersed with periods of rest or less intense exercise. The goal is to challenge yourself almost to your max during the intervals, Noam Tamir, CSCS, founder and CEO of TS Fitness in New York City, tells SELF.
During the intervals, your body relies on its anaerobic pathways (breakdown of glucose without oxygen) to provide fuel. It means that you’ll need to replenish your energy supplies quickly in order to keep going, Franci Cohen, MS, personal trainer and exercise physiologist, tells SELF. It’s also important to give yourself plenty of time to recover between intervals. It allows your body to acclimate to the next level of intensity and helps you perform at your peak.
Aside from boosting cardiovascular capacity, HIIT has been linked to various other benefits, including fat loss, improved blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, and lower blood pressure. Additionally, it can help improve muscle mass and strength.
Historically, HIIT was used to boost performance in elite athletes, but research has shown that it can be a healthy way for anyone to improve their health. HIIT can be a great addition to any exercise routine, but it’s important to remember that you should limit it to one or two workouts a week and balance it with rest days. It will prevent you from experiencing the negative effects of frequent, intense workouts, including injury or burnout, and maximize your overall fitness gains.
